Latest Aedes Stories

Cornell researchers have found a protein that may lead to a new way to control mosquitoes that spread dengue fever, yellow fever and other diseases when they feed on humans: Prevent them from urinating as they feed on blood.

To control mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, researchers need to look at the behavior of people, not just the insect that transmits the disease, according to new research by Steven Stoddard of the University of California, Davis, and intercollegiate colleagues.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory believe they've identified a simpler way to generate biofuels â€“ a one-step process to convert cellulose found in plant material and other biomass into a chemical that can serve as a precursor to make fuels and plastics.

In a drama played out across the southeastern U.S. in containers as small as a coffee cup, native and invasive mosquito larvae compete for resources and try to avoid getting eaten. One of the invasive mosquitoes, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), can carry dengue fever, a viral disease that sickens 50 to 100 million people a year in the tropics, so this seemingly inconsequential struggle has implications for human health.

Australian scientists are blaming humans for their nation's dengue risks and say installing large water tanks in urban regions might make the problem worse.
The researchers, led by Nigel Beebe from the University of Queensland, said such domestic water tanks would enable the dengue mosquito (Aedes aegypti) to regain its foothold across the country and expand its range of possible infections.
Beebe and colleagues from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, the...

'Drought-proofing' Australia's urban regions by installing large domestic water tanks may enable the dengue mosquito Aedes aegypti to regain its foothold across the country and expand its range of possible infections.

Australian scientists say hoarding water as climate change intensifies might aid the dengue fever-carrying mosquito Aedes aegypti in extending its range.
The lead author of the study, Michael Kearney of the University of Melbourne, said climate change and evolutionary change could act together to accelerate and expand the mosquito's range.

Aedes is a genus of mosquito found in tropical and subtropical zones. The name comes from the Greek aÄ“dÄ“s, meaning unpleasant, so called because of the diseases this mosquito transmits, which include dengue and yellow fever. There are presently some controversial moves afoot to abolish Aedes as a generic name and to replace it with Stegomyia.
Currently, the Aedes aegypti genome is being sequenced by TIGR, The Institute for Genomic Research.

Aedes albopictus (Family Culicidae), the Asian Tiger Mosquito or Forest Day Mosquito, is characterized by its black and white striped legs and small, black and white body. It was native to south-east Asia, and occupied a habitat that spread from Madagascar eastward to New Guinea, and north to the latitude of Korea.
The typical member of the Aedes albopictus has a length of about 5 mm. As with other members of the mosquito family, the female is outfitted with an elongated proboscis that she...

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.